They're so cute, but ARRRGGGHHH!

Not sure how to deal with some kitten behavior issues...and it isn't just my youngster who's doing this.

The Story: Got Finnegan from my next-door neighbors when their queen Baby had a litter of 4 kittens. They found a home for the little tuxedo, I took the little black male (Finn), and they kept two of Finn's littermates- a ginger male and dilute tortoise-shell female (Crazy and Delilah).

What with one thing and another, there are nine cats between the two households. This isn't too much of a problem- Baby has been teaching all the kids about 'how to be a cat' and Finn, Crazy and Delilah all play together quite nicely in either yard. Everyone's cool with this.

The problem is the 'getting underfoot' behavior. The kittens are very friendly and affectionate and come to greet me when I'm outside...rolling on my feet, winding around my ankles...so of course I greet them and pet them...but trying to get them to move? :banghead:

Had a friend visiting this weekend, and I warned him about this...but Delilah still got stepped on. She got her feelings hurt more than anything else, and forgave him...and was back at her anklewinding and foot-polishing the next day.

Finnegan does this too...and about half the time I end up just picking him up and carrying him when I need to get from Point A to Point B and he's tangled around my feet. I don't want to start doing this with his sibs as they aren't my cats and I'm not sure this is a good habit to encourage. :yoiks:

My balance isn't the greatest, and if I go down, somebody's gonna get HURT. How can I discourage this getting underfoot behavior without frightening or otherwise hurting the little monsters?
I don't mind them coming over to play with Finnegan and being friendly with me; I just don't want to be stepping on them!

FWIW...they do seem to have a lot of Oriental in their genetic make-up...shows up more in their conformation, voices, and temperament than markings.
They're all quite chatty...especially Finnegan.

No, I'm serious. Most cats have some deep genetic memory that when a human has a broom stay clear. Only my pure-bred Siamese has no fear of brooms and vaccums, but he jumps up to my shoulders anyway.

Perhaps after a while, they will just get discouraged and stop.